Algae has been recognized as a valuable resource, with proper cultivation and processing providing many products including fuels, feed, and a diverse array of chemicals which have uses in pharmaceuticals, and nutritional products like Omega 3 oils, which can be valued at over $500 per gallon.
The production of algae has sustainability advantages when compared to traditional land based crops and fossil fuels. Significant carbon savings are achieved by using energy-rich algae as a feedstock and source of biofuel, since algae consumes more harmful Co2 gas than is generated when its products are used as fuel or within other chemical products. Based on a carbon cost of $15 per ton (the projected carbon cost in 2012 under the post-Kyoto Treaty, the algal advantage has been estimated at a sustainable $0.20 per gallon with carbon costs expected to rise until at least 2050 because of increasingly high-carbon reduction targets.
Algae has the potential to provide a cost effective, economically sustainable substitution for existing fuels and feeds, which have been traditionally produced from fresh water intensive, agriculture land-based crops such as corn and soybeans, and from fossil petroleum. The controversy regarding the use of corn and other food to produce biofuel is well known, with the U.S. liquid transportation fuels market estimated at approximately 180 billion gallons per year and the global fuels market approaching 600 billion gallons per year.
Algal biomass is known to provide a high-protein concentrate (or higher-purity isolate) suitable for animal use or fish feed, and can be made suitable for human consumption. In fact, the ancient Mayan civilization made a bread type food out of Spirulina (Arthrospira sp.) blue-green algae grown and gathered from within their freshwater lakes. Today there is an established market for these algae type protein supplements; in the U.S. alone, the protein ingredient market was 2.40 billion pounds, valued at $3.9552 billion in 2007.
At the time of this writing, soybeans sell for approximately $0.12 per pound, whereas soy protein isolate sells for approximately $1.92 per pound. The nutritional value of several alga species show their protein content to be up to five times easier to digest as human protein than meat or soybean meal. (Biological value measures the degree to which the body can absorb and use the protein, with a higher number suggesting greater absorption and utilization.)
Biofuels Digest has projected that global algal fuel production will reach 1 billion gallons by 2014; other sources suggest that production volumes will not reach these levels until later in the decade.
Either way, algae derived transportation fuels may constitute only 0.0001% or one/one thousandth of the 2014 world fuel needs without giving demand values for other valuable algae products.
It is well known that algae may contain over 50% oil by weight, depending upon the species; other species can contain cellulose or sugar, either of which can be synthesized into fuels, in the amount of up to 40% by weight, and after processing, the remaining 60% to 70% of biomass can be used for valuable non-fuel applications, including:                Specialty Chemicals;        Nutraceuticals and Pharmaceuticals;        Feeds as well as food;        Naturally derived Pigments;        Products for Personal Care; and        Other unique products        
This indicates that it is likely that first-mover algae companies that have commercialized algae production systems operational in the 2010s, will enjoy an pronominal opportunity to enter the bio-oil, chemicals and feeds market without triggering an oversupply market condition for possibly decades.
There have been many attempts to provide a cost effective, enclosed bioreactor system for the cultivation of algae on a commercial scale for biofuel, biomass, and byproduct production, however, none are believed to provide a system which does so in an economically viable and sustainable manner.
Accordingly, there exists a long felt, but unresolved need to provide a fabrication-cost effective, enclosed and controlled bioreactor system for large scale commercial production of protein and energy-rich algae or other forms of biological biomass grown by photosynthesis or the like which is efficient in operation, while operating on an economically viable and sustainable basis.